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charcoal, the albuminoid materials are more completely retained by it 
upon the filter; but one never can feel satisfied that absolutely no gela- 
tine passes through when fibrous and muscular structures are being ex- 
amined. 
For this reason the acetic acid process seems less subject to error than 
any of the modifications of the methods in which alcohol and potash are 
used, and, accordingly, in the following experiments the former has been 
the process adopted :— 
Ist. Has the liver the power of forming amyloid substance of the 
first species from azotized materials? This question may probably be 
answered in the affirmative. The connexion between this substance and 
sugar is so close that the question may be made more general. Are sac- 
charine and amylaceous matters formed in the animal economy from 
azotized matters? Chemists have obtained of late years a great number 
of results which tend to show that ternary compounds may result from 
azotized elements. Lehman has obtained it from hematine. Dogs fed 
for many days on meat exclusively are found to have amyloid substance 
in the liver, and, on being killed, saccharine matter is found sufficiently 
abundant in the blood and tissue of that organ. Bitches fed exclusively 
on meat for days continue to form milk containing sugar. I have lately 
verified the same fact in cats. It is argued, however, that, nevertheless, 
the amylaceous and saccharine matter enters from without, for that the 
herbivora find the amylaceous principle in vegetables ; that it accumu- 
lates in their tissues, and through this channel enters the organisms 
of the carnivora; that, in short, while the bitches and cats are secreting 
milk, they are obtaining starchy materials from whence to elaborate the 
sugar of it from the meat on which they live. 
That this is not the case, may be argued from the following experi- 
ments :— 
First experiment :—Six samples of mutton were obtained, as fresh as 
possible, and treated as follows: two ounces of each chopped up and 
boiled in one ounce of distilled water for half an hour; the whole 
bruised in a mortar, and made into paste with animal charcoal; the 
paste, placed in a filter, was washed with boiling distilled water, merely 
enough to allow a small quantity to pass through, which was let drop 
into a test-tube containing glacial acetic acid. In no one of the six in- 
stances did any precipitate of amyloid substance result. 
Second experiment :—Six samples of beef, obtained quite fresh, were 
similarly treated. In no one instance did any precipitate of amyloid 
substance result. 
Third experiment :—The flesh of two rabbits was thus treated : 
the hind quarters chopped up; boiled for some hours in as much water 
as was sufficient to bathe the whole; the highly gelatinous broth strained 
off and evaporated to a small bulk, mixed with animal charcoal, placed 
in a filter, and washed with boiling distilled water, so that a few drops 
were yielded, which were allowed to drop into glacial acetic acid. A 
small amount of a white substance was precipitated, which did not give 
with iodine the characteristic reaction. The fluid obtained from the 
